DISPLAY CONTROL APPARATUS AND DISPLAY CONTROL PROGRAM
A display control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is a display control apparatus that displays an image on a display unit equipped on a vehicle, the display control apparatus including an image display unit that determines whether or not an amount of information of a first image to be displayed on the display unit equipped on the vehicle needs to be reduced based on vehicle information obtained from the vehicle, displays the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image does not need to be reduced, and displays a second image an amount of information of which is smaller than the amount of the information of the first image in place of the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced.
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The disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-233851 filed on Dec. 13, 2018 including the specification, drawings and abstract is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND 1. Technical FieldThe present disclosure relates to a display control apparatus and a display control program for displaying an image on a display unit equipped on a vehicle.
2. Description of Related ArtJapanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-109351 discloses a technology of making an image displayed on a screen of a display unit hidden when a travelling speed of a vehicle exceeds a threshold.
SUMMARYHowever, there can be a case where convenience decreases when an image displayed on a screen is hidden as in the technology disclosed in JP 2004-109351 A, and in such a case, this is not desirable.
The present disclosure has been devised in view of the aforementioned circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a display control apparatus capable of improving convenience.
In order to solve the aforementioned problem, an embodiment of the present disclosure provides a display control apparatus that displays an image on a display unit equipped on a vehicle. The display control apparatus includes an image display unit that determines whether or not an amount of information of a first image to be displayed on the display unit equipped on the vehicle needs to be reduced based on vehicle information obtained from the vehicle, displays the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image does not need to be reduced, and displays a second image, an amount of information of the second image being smaller than the amount of the information of the first image in place of the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced.
According to the embodiment, the second image is provided in place of the first image when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced, and convenience can be improved.
In the embodiment, the first image may be a first text image indicating a appearance of a sentence, and the second image may be a second text image indicating an appearance of a sentence obtained by summarizing the sentence.
According to the embodiment, since the second text image is provided in place of the first text image when the amount of the information of the first text image needs to be reduced, cognitive load of the text image on a driver is reduced as compared with the case of displaying a text appearance of a long sentence, and convenience can be restrained from significantly decreasing.
In the embodiment, the first image may be a first picture image indicating an image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text, and the second image may be a second picture image indicating an image obtained by summarizing the image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text.
According to the embodiment, since the second picture image is provided in place of the first picture image when the amount of the information of the first picture image needs to be reduced, cognitive load of the picture image on a driver is reduced as compared with the case of displaying a detailed picture image, and convenience can be restrained from significantly decreasing.
In the embodiment, the image display unit may determine whether or not a second image group composed of a plurality of the second images that are sorted out into a plurality of categories includes one corresponding to the first image, and may display the second image corresponding to the first image on the display unit.
According to the embodiment, a process of processing first image information or the similar process can be eliminated, so that determination processing of the image display unit can be relieved. Accordingly, the second image can be generated without an expensive high performance processor, which can reduce production costs of the display control apparatus while enhancing the speed of image display.
In the embodiment, the image display unit may determine whether or not the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced using the vehicle information and a classifier that classifies a feature value of an image.
According to the embodiment, the contents of various types of text images and picture images can be classified regardless of complexities and genres of the images. Therefore, for various types of text images and picture images, an abstracted image to reduce cognitive load on a driver can be easily generated, and the second image corresponding to the first image can be displayed with high accuracy.
In the embodiment, the classifier may be composed of a pre-trained neural network.
According to the embodiment, an appropriate images can be quickly classified in accordance with information of the feature value of the input first image.
Another embodiment of the present disclosure can be realized as a display control program.
According to the present disclosure, convenience can be improved.
Features, advantages, and technical and industrial significance of exemplary embodiments of the disclosure will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals denote like elements, and wherein:
Hereafter, embodiments for implementing the disclosure are described with reference to the drawings.
Specific examples of the first image are described using
A text image is an image having at least one character visualized. The first text image 50A2 shown in
When the first text image 50A2 is described in some lines and this first text image 50A2 is displayed on the display unit 401 in the travelling vehicle 400, it can disturb driving of a driver since it can take a long time for the driver to complete the understanding of the sentences even in a large font of the characters. Moreover, when the first picture image 50A1 represents an object in a complex pattern or shape, or an amount of information of the first picture image 50A1 is large, it can also disturb the driving since it takes a longer time for a browser to complete the correct understanding of the content of the image than a time taken at a stop of the vehicle. As above, in the travelling vehicle 400, cognitive load on a driver tends to more increase in terms of understanding of the content of the first image 50A as the amount of the information of the first image 50A becomes larger. As a technique for reducing such an increase of the cognitive load, there can be considered a method of forcibly putting such a displayed image in an undisplayed state. Nevertheless, it is not always desirable to put the image in the undisplayed state since understandability decreases as a whole due to a loss of desired information along with a decrease in the amount of the information of the image. In consideration of such circumstances, the display control apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment is configured such that image information can be continuously provided while an increase of cognitive load on a driver being reduced. Hereafter, an exemplary configuration of the display control apparatus 100 is described, and then operations of the display control apparatus 100 are sequentially described.
Returning to
The display control unit 2 includes a image display unit 21 and a storage 23. The image display unit 21 displays the first image 50A generated based on the first image information 50 on the display unit 401 when a travelling speed of the vehicle 400 is less than a specific threshold, and displays a second image generated based on the second image information 60 in place of the first image 50A on the display unit 401 when the travelling speed is not less than the threshold. The second image information 60 is stored in the storage 23. The second image information 60 is image information indicating the content of the second image the amount of the information of which is smaller than the amount of the information of the first image 50A. Examples of displaying the second image are mentioned later. The travelling speed is a vehicle speed detected by a speed detection unit 402 of the vehicle 400, and is transmitted as speed information 70 to the display control apparatus 100 from the speed detection unit 402. Examples of displaying the second image are mentioned later.
Next, operations of the display control apparatus 100 are described using
The image display unit 21 determines whether or not the vehicle speed is less than the threshold based on the speed information 70 and the threshold (step S2). In this determination processing, the vehicle speed and the threshold are compared in their magnitudes with each other. The threshold is a value preset for the vehicle speed determination.
When the vehicle speed is less than the threshold (No in step S2), the image display unit 21 transfers the first image information 50 to the display unit 401. On the display unit 401 into which the first image information 50 is input, the first image 50A as shown in
Returning to step S2, when the vehicle speed is not less than the threshold (Yes in step S2), the image display unit 21 determines whether or not first text image information is included in the first image information 50 (step S4). The first text image information is information indicating the content of the first text image 50A2.
When the first text image information is included in the first image information 50 (Yes in step S4), the image display unit 21 determines whether or not first picture image information is included in the first picture information 50 (step S5). The first picture image information is information indicating the content of the first picture image 50A1.
When the first picture image information is not included in the first picture information 50 (No in step S5), the image display unit 21 determines that only the first text image information is included in the first image information 50. In this case, the image display unit 21 outputs information including second text image information as the second image information 60 in place of the first image information 50 to the display unit 401. Thereby, a second text image is displayed on the display unit 401 (step S6). The second text image is an image representing a sentence the amount of the information of which is smaller than the amount of the information of the first text image 50A2 shown in
Displaying the second text images 60A2 as above can cause a driver to roughly understand that the destination of the vehicle by way of example has a ranch, woods, a farm and the like while reducing cognitive load on the driver. Moreover, a passenger also understands the content of the displayed information, and lack of such information can be reduced as compared with the case of no displayed images.
Returning to step S5 in
Displaying the second text images 60A2 and the second picture images 60A1 as above enables the driver and the passenger to more easily understand the contents of the images displayed on the display unit 401 as compared with the case where only the second text images 60A2 are displayed, so that convenience can be improved while an increase of cognitive load is restrained.
Returning to step S4 in
Displaying the second picture images 60A1 as above can cause a person to intuitively understand the content of display as compared with the case where the second text images 60A2 are displayed as in
The image display unit 21 may have a configuration of determining whether or not the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced using the vehicle information and an classifier which classifies a feature value of an image. Thereby, the contents of various types of text images and picture images can be classified regardless of complexities and genres of the images. Therefore, for various types of text images and picture images, an abstracted image to reduce cognitive load on a driver can be easily generated, and the second image corresponding to the first image can be displayed with high accuracy. By the classified composed of a neural network that has finished learning, the classifier can quickly classify an appropriate feature value that has been learned in accordance with information of the feature value of the input first image. Notably, there can also be used for the classifier techniques such as a support vector machine (SVM) and a scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) other than a neural network.
While for the present embodiment, an exemplary configuration in the case of generating the second image using image data stored in the storage 23 provided in the display control apparatus 100 has been described, information of the second image stored, for example, in the server 300 may be displayed in place of the image data stored in the storage 23 on the display unit 401. This configuration can reduce the capacity of the memory provided in the vehicle 400, which can reduce production costs of the vehicle 400.
While in the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the travelling speed of the vehicle 400 is not less than the threshold and the first image or the second image is displayed, vehicle information other than the travelling speed may be used. Such vehicle information other than the travelling speed is exemplarily information indicating the state of a parking brake being operated or the state of the parking brake being released, and/or information acquired from an advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS). The ADAS is a system which assists driving operation of a driver for enhancing convenience in road traffic. Other than or in addition to these pieces of information, the vehicle information other than the travelling speed may be exemplarily information indicating a steering state of a steering apparatus, and/or information indicating the state of brake operation. Namely, the image display unit 21 may have a configuration of determining whether or not the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced based on the vehicle information obtained from the vehicle, displaying the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image does not need to be reduced, and displaying the second image in place of the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced. By using the vehicle information other than the travelling speed as above, flexibility in designing the display control apparatus 100 is improved, and vehicle types to which the display control apparatus 100 can be applied can also be increased.
Moreover, the storage 23 of the display control apparatus 100 of the present embodiment may store information of a second image group, for example, composed of a plurality of second images which are sorted out into a plurality of categories. The categories are classifications according to the contents of images to be displayed on the display unit 401 (animals, buildings, nature scenes and the like, for example). In this case, the image display unit 21 may have a configuration of determining whether or not the information of the second image group includes a thing corresponding to the first image information, and displaying the second image generated based on the second image information corresponding to the first image information on the display unit 401. Such a configuration can eliminate a process of processing the first image information or the similar process, so that the determination processing of the image display unit 21 can be relieved. Accordingly, the second image can be generated without an expensive processor high in processing speed, which can reduce production costs of the display control apparatus 100 while enhancing the speed of image display.
The display control apparatus 100 of the present embodiment may have a configuration of changing the amount of the information of the second image stepwise or continuously according to the vehicle speed. For example, the amount of the information of the second image is reduced according to speed ranges such as a low speed range (0 km/h to 30 km/h), a middle speed range (31 km/h to 70 km/h) and a high speed range (71 km/h or more) in the order of the low speed range, the middle speed range and the high speed range. This configuration can more reduce an increase of cognitive load as compared with the case where a image with a fixed amount of the information is displayed relative to the vehicle speed.
Claims
1. A display control apparatus that displays an image on a display unit equipped on a vehicle, the display control apparatus comprising
- an image display unit that determines whether or not an amount of information of a first image to be displayed on the display unit equipped on the vehicle needs to be reduced based on vehicle information obtained from the vehicle, displays the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image does not need to be reduced, and displays a second image an amount of information of which is smaller than the amount of the information of the first image in place of the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced.
2. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
- the first image is a first text image indicating an appearance of a sentence; and
- the second image is a second text image indicating an appearance of a sentence obtained by summarizing the sentence.
3. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
- the first image is a first picture image indicating an image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text; and
- the second image is a second picture image indicating an image obtained by summarizing the image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text.
4. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image display unit determines whether or not a second image group composed of a plurality of the second images that are sorted out into a plurality of categories includes one corresponding to the first image, and displays the second image corresponding to the first image on the display unit.
5. The display control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image display unit determines whether or not the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced using the vehicle information and a classifier that classifies a feature value of an image.
6. The display control apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the classifier is composed of a pre-trained neural network.
7. A display control apparatus that displays an image on a display unit equipped on a vehicle, the display control apparatus comprising
- an image display unit that determines whether or not an amount of information of a first text image indicating an appearance of a sentence to be displayed on the display unit equipped on the vehicle and a first picture image indicating an image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text to be displayed on the display unit need to be reduced based on vehicle information obtained from the vehicle, displays the first text image and the first picture image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first text image and the first picture image do not need to be reduced, and displays a second text image that indicates the appearance of the sentence to be displayed on the display unit and an amount of information of which is smaller than an amount of information of the first text image and a second picture image that indicates the image of at least one of a shape, a diagrammatic figure and a video image other than a text to be displayed on the display unit and an amount of information of which is smaller than an amount of information of the first picture image in place of the first text image and the first picture image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first text image and the first picture image need to be reduced.
8. A display control program that causes a computer to execute:
- a determination step of determining whether or not an amount of information of a first image to be displayed on a display unit equipped on a vehicle needs to be reduced based on vehicle information obtained from the vehicle; and
- a display step of displaying the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image does not need to be reduced, and displaying a second image an amount of information of which is smaller than the amount of the information of the first image in place of the first image on the display unit when the amount of the information of the first image needs to be reduced.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 9, 2019
Publication Date: Jun 18, 2020
Patent Grant number: 11151966
Applicant: Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha (Toyota-shi)
Inventor: Chihiro INABA (Nerima-ku)
Application Number: 16/707,203